Not Just Another
by the Alchemist1
Summary: "Only gods and wild animals rejoice in solitude, Sanzo. Which are you?" Gojyo/Sanzo, Language and innuedos. 3rd up.
1. Quiet can be noisy

1: Quiet can be noisy  
  
-------------------  
You and I, we're two of a kind.  
I hate to say it but you'll never relate  
What makes you tick?  
It makes me smile.  
~Just Another/ P. Yorn~  
-------------------  
  
The day was unusually hot, a humid, dry air enveloping the terrain as far as the eye could see. It seemed it had been like this for the past four days, a blinding heat that hazed up the horizon, making purple eyes blurry with tears. The heavy material of the robes did not help either, and he had pushed them down to his waist in an attempt to free his body from constricting heat.  
  
"When are we gonna GET there?" An exasperated grunt from the backseat.   
  
"Yeah. I'm hu~ngry!!!! Waaah." A petty whine that accompanied it. "Ne, Gojyo, where d'you think the nearest tavern is? And do you think they'll be serving roast beef? Maybe Peking duck..." An audible growling accompanied the shrill voice that ranted.   
  
A thunk, and more whining. "Shut up, saru. Your stomach too. I'll gut you if you make that stupid growling noise again." What sounded like rattling chains emphasized the speaker's point.  
  
"YOU SHUT UP, ERO-KAPPA!!" A loud smack. "That hurt! And it's not my fault I'm hungry, the last time we ate was--"  
  
"All YOU ever think about is food, stupid monkey, where'd you cram your little brai--"  
  
"My brain is NOT little--"   
  
"YAAAROU!!" This had to be the upteenth time he had done it in a day. Standing up despite the rolling jeep, he grabbed his paper fan and soundly smacked the two occupants of the back seat, his other hand reaching for the gun he kept under the folds of his robe by his side, and pointed the glinty snout at the two in general.   
  
"I will fucking blow your brains out, or whatever shit you have inside your head if both of you don't shut up. Now." A headache in a bouncing Jeep on a dusty road on a hot, hot day was a total bitch. Add a whining monkey and an arrogant kappa? He was more than ready to live by his promise.   
  
The two seemed to sense that as well, because the kappa had dropped a meaty fist in mid-strike and the monkey-boy swallowed a retort in his throat.  
  
"Maa, maa, Sanzo, please calm down." Chuckling, the driver beside him tried to placate his flaring temper. "We'll need them both for a fight, remember?" Smiling green eyes looked at the reflection of the two on the rearview mirror. "And both of you should be a little more patient, ne? We're just three hours out of the nearest village northwest of our directio--"  
  
Immediately a cacophony of voices assaulted him. "What do the taverns serve, Hakkai?" "Does it have a local brothel?" "What's the town's specialty dish?" "God they better have girls--"  
  
A threatening click from the gun silenced them again. It seemed as if he would NOT calm down after all. Northwest of their direction, eh? That meant just walking toward the far-off silhouette of hills. A particularly evil thought crossed his head, and he nudged the driver to stop.  
  
"What the hell we stopping fo'?" It was always the kappa with the big mouth. Maybe because he never just stopped and stared and stared like the monkey, but he was noisy that way. Immediately he found himself sprawled on sand, hearing a thunk on the other side of the jeep indicating that the monkey had been kicked off the vehicle as well.   
  
"Drive." Hakkai only blinked up at him once before starting the engine. He settled back to his seat as the jeep rolled forward.   
  
"Hey wait, you corrupted monk!" The kappa scrambled up and chased the vehicle, managing to keep up slightly. "What the fuck do you think you're doing--?!"  
  
"You two. Walk." Purple eyes glared at wide wine-colored ones before smacking him upside the head with the blasted fan. The jeep sped away, sand flying, and it was not an option to stand and fume.   
  
"I'll make it to the jeep faster than you, old man!" Beside him the monkey jeered, and he almost decapitated the sorry thing had he not thought of more important things. Long legs striving to outdo the speed of the younger demon, the kappa ran after the jeep, spewing curses at the back of the blonde head on the front seat.   
  
"That was very mean," admonished Hakkai sternly, although he was rather amused to see the monk beside him actually grin at the foolish sight of the kappa waving his hands in the air and cursing, and the boy-monkey scrambling to keep up in the hot, hot sand.  
  
============  
  
"Hakkai's right, you know. That was a mean thing to do."   
  
He didn't even bother to look up at the figure who entered his room. The article he was reading was much more interesting. He figured it was less a fuss if he just shut up and pretended the other was not around. The night was quiet, was cool, a contrast to the blistering heat of the day. Quiet. That was what he liked most.  
  
The sound of a chair scraping the floor and the shadow of another falling over the table. "You know, you could have just let the monkey off the jeep. He started all the fuss asking about a tavern and food and all the silly shit he confines himself to." A rustling of clothes, shifting of positions as the other figure searched for something in his pockets.  
  
The rustling annoyed him slightly. He guessed his visitor had a couple of drinks before deciding to bother him. Sighing, he reached into his own robes and took out a cylinder. He handed it over without missing a line from the paper he was reading. "Here. And shut up." For the love of all the gods. All he wanted was quiet.   
  
Warm fingers grazed his own slightly as his offering was accepted. "Why Sanzo, I never knew you shared." The click of the lighter, and the comforting smell of tobacco and menthol. The voice. Teasing, a little mocking, somewhat surprised. Well he was obviously flattering himself, that was sure.   
  
"Just get a light and shut up, will you? Better yet, go away." He was grateful though, that it had not been the monkey who had entered. Innocent almost to a fault, the little thing never stopped rambling. At least the kappa had sense. At least the kappa could shut up with a cigarette between his teeth--sort of.   
  
They were quiet for some time. His visitor was enjoying the smoke; he was enjoying his paper. But this time it was rather strange, because he found he could not register what he was reading without the backdrop of someone's voice rambling on him. Uneasy, he began, "Where's Cho anyway?"  
  
"With his dragon. The monkey wanted to teach it new tricks. Couldn't get it into his little one-track brain that a jeep--a fucking JEEP--doesn't need to learn stupid things like fetching sticks and rolling around." Ash flicked on the small tray between them.   
  
He knew that. Hakkai himself told him earlier that evening. He figured the little dragon-jeep needed some time off after that days-long travel. He stayed quiet. Were they getting to him, the stupid kappa and the monkey, that he could not be comfortable without their squabble whenever they were around?  
  
Mental note: After all this was through, he would squester himself up in the mountain retreats and shoot anything coming within ten miles from him.   
  
"I'm waiting for the brothels to open up," the redhaired kappa continued, taking a long drag. "When the sky's completely dark. And I'll have me a nice whore with big tits and a tight fit and I'm gonna see how many times she's gonna call out my name in the dark." He chuckled to himself at the thought, as if planning his activities in advance.   
  
While the lecherous kappa obviously found talking about his activities rather casual, he on the other hand started to feel uncomfortable. It was true he indulged in drinking, smoked uncharacteristically for a monk, wielded and used a gun, and occassionally gambled, but the kappa beat him to the list by one notch.   
  
"The last one in that riverside town--what the hell was the name again?--yeah, that little dump. The last one I took, that girl with the pigtails in the saloon? She had a roommate. Goddamn if it wasn't the most pleasant surprise of the week."   
  
It wasn't the first time Gojyo had regalled them with his exploits. Always he felt rather squeamish. Hakkai would only smile and nod, sometimes in understanding. Cho knew what it was like, he supposed, and could not help but wonder if the generally amicable man thought up the scenes in his head except that the girl would be gentle and brown-haired, his beloved Kana.   
  
Goku simply did not understand such things. Talking of teeth? It would remind him of food. Talking of round, bouncy white things? The boy-monkey would call for dumplings. Talking of bittersweet-tasting fluids as a result of pent up passion--? "You should have put more pepper then," would be the 'wise' counsel. Sometimes it was just hilarious to see how such a dirty comment could be interpreted as something off a cookbook.  
  
Well, /he/ never said anything to those 'dirty comments'. How could he? What would he say? Probably it would only make the kappa amused. 'The damn corrupt monk is a /virgin/?!??!' And the other two would have to cope up with a lot of bloodshed and piecing Gojyo back together. Was it really so bad to be a 'virgin'?  
  
So he shut up whenever this happened, pretending to murmur a daily sutra, or concentrate on the map, or interrupt to point out an important reminder, occassionally using the poor monkey boy as an excuse--bapping the saru on the head with his fan, and while teary golden eyes and a whiny voice would ask, he would just grunt, pressumably pissed at something Goku unconsciously did. Right now, he tried so hard to concentrate on his paper.  
  
"You know what I mean? She was still rather young, that bargirl, but her roomie... not the perfect body in this part of the world, but man--" Even without looking up from his paper Sanzo could see from the corner of his eyes Gojyo groping air, hands in a cupped position and fingers squeezing something imaginary--"like that you know? Oh man. Oh god. Yeah." The kappa closed his eyes and took a drag, didn't see the slight, slight shiver of the priest in front of him at the things he was saying.   
  
How was it like? A curious part of his mind asked. Raised in a monestary he was taught chastity and abstinece, and had grown up with a brotherly, almost protective outlook on women and children in general. He was bothered. And Genjo Sanzo did not like it when he was bothered.   
  
"So go," he said under his breath as he flipped a page.  
  
"Eh? You say something, monk?" He wondered why he almost squirmed when burgundy eyes trailed his direction. Since when did he 'squirm' under anyone's gaze?  
  
"What are you waiting for then? I don't know why you're even wasting your time." Flipped a page again, out of instinct, suddenly uncomfortable. A part of his brain was extremely annoyed at the action.   
  
"Eh? I have a couple of hours yet. The good ones come out after sunset." Gojyo jerked a thumb over at the window, at the purple-hued sky. "I think I'll stay in here for a while." Smoke curled up to the ceiling as the redhead took another long drag. "What will /you/ be doing for the entire evening?"  
  
He made no response. His companion continued, "It's been a long drive since our last stop. Don't tell me you'll just be sitting here all night reading--"  
  
"Enjoying myself, considering that I haven't done it in a long time," he cut in sharply, shaking his head. "With you and the fool monkey creating racket enough to shake the seven heavens, it's a wonder how I can put up with you." He meant it too. 'Quiet' was a music he had not heard for quite some time.   
  
"Enjoying--" the kappa shook his head incredulously, red hair flying. "Reading, cooping yourself up--/Enjoying/?!?" Another shake. "Goku's out raiding the town's pantries. Hakkai's probably going to spend some time at the gambling house swindling the villagers to their last coin. I know where I'll be at, and /you/..."   
  
Suddenly claret eyes gleamed, and the monk had to lift his paper to hide the uncomfortable look that crossed his face.   
  
"Hey, why don't you come with me? We could go out to the brothels together!"   
  
Oh damn shit. That was /all/ he needed right now, thanks very much. He started as a big hand tore the paper from his grasp, and treated Gojyo with a deathly glare. The kappa meanwhile was busy thinking up an agenda. "Your monkly robes have to go though. No way you're gonna go in those 'holy' things. And I know the perfect type for you. Since obviously you won't start things, she's got to be bold, outspoken... maybe a light brunette with dark eyes will do..."  
  
"I don't do that stuff, kappa," he managed an exasperated sigh. He viewed women in general like things to be taken care of, a brotherly kind of affection that was rather scary to equate to anything remotely near what the horny kappa had in mind.   
  
"Not yet," Gojyo persisted, grinning widely. /Oh so not yet,/ he thought. He couldn't help but leer at the blonde before him. "But soon. You're corrupted already, so why not go all the way? You can just hang around for a while, althugh... You shouldn't have trouble finding company--" Ruby eyes assessed the glaring man.  
  
The monk froze. The safety of the newspaper was out of his grasp now, and he felt rather like a deer on headlights. But he kept his glare in place. There was no way he would show the kappa how extremely disturbed he was feeling at the moment. Instead he raised an eyebrow coolly. "Hmn..."  
  
Gojyo's eyes brightened, triumph, surprise and glee glittering in them. He'd never thought that Sanzo--/SANZO/, the human ice block, would be so easy to persuade--  
  
"OW!!!" He was on his back on the floor. For the life of him he wondered how paper could hurt harder than a rock. If he got a papercut it wouldn't show, and if he was bleeding, nobody would know, he thought mournfully. "What did you fucking do that for? O~w." He was annoyed at the monk. Very annoyed.   
  
Sanzo was standing, the mighty paper fan in his hands and a violent glare in his purple eyes. Stupid kappa! There was no way he would consider even stepping into an establishment like that. Instead he shrugged to cover the shiver in his spine and turned. "That's for being stupid and bothering other people." That came out harder than his usual annoyed tone. He picked up his newspaper and turned to the window, scowling purple eyes willing Dusk to descend in full force.  
  
Behind him he heard the kappa stand up and collect himself, cursing. Let him be angry. He heard a few steps on the cobbled floor as they dragged toward the door. Good. The idiot was leaving. But not without a fight, he realized, as a very sarcastic voice uncharacterisitic of the kappa even in his fights with Goku surprised him.  
  
"One day you'll realize you're all fucked-up, you corrupted monk, resisting every good thing that comes your way. That's unhealthy. We're all allowed to interact with each other, in case you haven't noticed, your *HIGHNESS*." A pause as nicotine was sucked in. "One day you'll realize it's a little lonely up there, where you are."  
  
Sanzo sighed. The kappa obviously had more than one shot before he'd decided to come in and intrude, he decided. "Whatever, kappa, I don't need your philosoph--"  
  
"Only gods and wild beasts can stand alone forever, Sanzo-*sama*. Which are you?"  
  
That did it. How dare Gojyo compare him to a wild animal?!! That was rather redundant, considering--  
  
Click.  
  
The door had closed on him. The hedonist kappa had closed the door on him. Just as he was about to explode, just as he was about to actually parry that resounding verbal backhand with a jab of his own. Just as he opened his mouth only to have the words halted at the rude substitution of wood for the smoking half-breed.  
  
Well, at least it was quiet again. He could settle down. His eyes scanned the paper once more, refusing to let the earlier incident bother him. The heat of the town still pervaded the night, and he was starting to sweat. Removing his robes and the sutra, he laid them neatly on the spare chair the kappa had just vacated and resumed reading. A crow alighted on the sill beside the chair, and stared at Sanzo with pitless eyes.   
  
//Which are you?//  
  
What a stupid thought. Capable of coming from the moron kappa, naturally. He swatted the thing away with his fan and reopened his paper to read. Or tried to at least, now that he was sufficiently bothered to no end. It seemed the voices in his head insisted on debating the rather uncomfortable matter, when all he would have wanted was to just sit, dammit, and /read/.   
  
Quiet can be such a noise, he realized, and promptly reached for a pack. It annoyed him how they could annoy /him/ even when they weren't actually around.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tsuzuku  
  
notes: The quote actually comes as "Whoever delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god" and I came across it reading some philosophy book in the library. Sounds very Sanzo-ish, so I used it on him. ^^ Comments? I'm at obsidianengel@yahoo.com 


	2. They all come out at night

2: They all come out at night.   
  
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Voices in the darkness  
Scream away my mental health  
Can I ask a question  
To help me save me from myself?  
~Lovesong/A Perfect Circle  
-------------------  
  
  
//It would have been nice if the monk himself had come over.//  
  
Recalling his earlier 'conversation'---if, really, exchanging barbs with the haughty monk was 'conversation'---with Sanzo, he could not help but notice that maybe, just maybe, albeit his very annoyed, pissed-off exterior, the monk was internally affected. Had he not flipped the newspaper pages just a little roughly, just a little too quickly? Had he not tried to cover his face casually once or twice? And he had called Hakkai "Cho", something he never called the green-eyed man, always settling for the formal "Hakkai".   
  
He sometimes let his groin do the thinking, but Sha Gojyo was not stupid, nor was he completely oblivious. Being oblivious was the monkey's job, and hitting and flirting taught him to be more susceptible to another's emotions or thoughts at least, basing on the most subtle action or facial expession. That was how most of his lays ended up in his bed anyway.  
  
//And Stick-Up-My-Ass Sanzo was *certainly* affected. Haha.//  
  
It was the thought that pervaded his mind the entire evening he was out, the entire time he had been in the brothels doing what he did best. Even as he spoke the smooth lines of a playboy accustomed to playing at women like a musician his lute, he had imagined what it would have been like if Sanzo had tried to push a pick-up line to get a lay.  
  
'He'd probably just draw that damn gun and threaten you to bed, honey.' The mental image brought a grin to his lips that served to inflame the girl in front of him more. She probably thought he had gotten a kick from her storytelling. What was that about again? Oh yeah. How she managed to give the burly bartender the slip once.   
  
As a 'been-there-done-that' he was naturally picky when it came to 'entertainment'--from choosing the places of 'entertainment' to the girls he actually slept with. But travelling had taught him to at least tolerate the former criterion; sometimes in the seediest places if you looked hard enough, you could unearth a prize. Maybe he had grown linient after some time; after all, sex with a class-C was better than no sex at all.   
  
This town had proved to be an example. It had pretty girls, but they were a little too shy. Maybe it was lack of new faces that entered the town? Familiarity breeds contempt, and the lack of refreshing new people to keep the brothel house up and running was felt much. He expected to be a little bored, but was mistaken.  
  
It was a fun game he played all evening, to keep himself entertained. He would say something very suggestive; he would imagine it in Sanzo-speak. He snorted several times in his drink, twice at the wrong moment of a girl's story, excusing a morsel stuck in his throat. The girls didn't mind. They found him charming, as usual. Hot, bad-ass, and charming. With a slick mouth.  
  
Not that Sanzo would dare say such things of course. It would not take one much to imagine the monk cooped up in the corner with an impatient look, a 'finish-what-the-hell-you're-doing-so-we-can-get-this-over-with' look. Still, it was so damn funny, even though it was rather a strain on his imagination.  
  
//The damn prude doesn't know what he's missing.//  
  
He was startled from his thoughts when the dark-haired girl beside him trailed a well-manicured hand down his chest. "And where are you headed for, I thought I asked you to get me another beer?" His grin belied his words as fingers feathered over his crotch.  
  
"I need to fix something. You haven't introduced me to your friend yet." She smiled, puckered perfect red lips as her fingers reached their destination.  
  
The kappa grinned wider. It had been a long evening, and he wanted what he came here for.   
  
============  
  
The heat was intense even at night. He had taken off his robes, his arm warmers, and had opened the windows. The humid air clearly indicated rain in the near future. Well that was good. He figured the dry desert-like town, with its dustdevils and tumbleweeds, needed to quench its 'thirst'.   
  
But the humidity...! If the humidity were a living, breathing person, if it were a god at all dozing in one of the seven heavens... well at the very least he felt like shooting the arrogant bastard. Let the rain come. Fuck the sticky feel of air.  
  
A knock. The door opened. The knock was not to request permission for entry but to at least inform him before entering. "Oh." A soft surprised expression from his visitor. He didn't have to turn to see it directed at him. "You haven't left."  
  
"No." Unlike the monkey, or the kappa, he knew he could speak to Hakkai. The latter was like an older brother who knew how to deal with any kind of person. And despite the fact that Hakkai knew how to speak with everyone, he was not irritating. In fact, true to the latter's healing abilities, sometimes just sitting quietly with Hakkai was soothing.  
  
Silence. "Well, they make very good spring rolls here. You should try it sometime. When are we leaving?"  
  
"In two days." He had used the time alone to busy himself with the ever-pressing journey west.   
  
The brown-haired man nodded. "Well tomorrow then. My treat." The monk could hear the quiet triumph in the tone. Obviously a very successful night of gambling for Hakkai. He turned around and raised an eyebrow at the man outside his door. "Why's the monkey...?"  
  
Hakkai smiled and looked down at the unconscious form in his arms. "Well Goku ate something bad when he tried out the fishmonger's stall. Obviously uncooked butiti[1] he mistook for dried meat. Fainted on the spot, I was told, after puking every single drop he had in him, surprising he didn't turn blue from poisoning. The old man at the stalls said he'd be a little feverish tomorrow."  
  
"Stupid monkey," he snorted, opening his paper fan in an attempt to cool himself somewhat. The man at the door honestly thought he took out the thing to whap the (albeit unconscious)monkey . "You'll have to take care of him then?" Goku had acquired a strong stomach from all the devouring he did, but uncooked butiti... the fish he had just consumed was a nasty little thing indeed.  
  
Hakkai nodded. "He'll be a little weak for, oh, give him a day and a half. Just in time for us to move out again. First, he needs to rest though. He may have what I'd like to think of as a strong natural defense system but he's dehydrated. Um..." The green-eyed man hesitated. "Do you mind if Gojyo and I trade rooms?"   
  
The rooms they landed in the inn were rather tight, so that each one had his own space instead of sharing a room like what they did usually. Originally, Sanzo's and Hakkai's rooms were in the corridor facing the east; along the hallway was Gojyo's, and then Goku's. By trading places with Gojyo, that meant Hakkai would be sleeping in the room closest to Goku's; that meant the kappa would occupy the room across the wall , that meant he would have to suffer the idiosyncracies of the redhead. Especially when they had the luxury of having a room each; that usually meant Gojyo would be home with a 'prize', enjoying her for the rest of the night and sleeping in tomorrow morning. Hakkai could tolerate the sounds they made, he always did; Goku was a sound, sound sleeper.   
  
But the monkey was sick, and Hakkai was the only one who knew how to tend an illness properly. It would be very inefficient for him to scurry back and forth the hallway. So he had to relent.   
  
"Hn." He took a drag. It was the last stick and he planned to go out after it burned to get a new pack.  
  
"Thank you." The relief in the voice showed the depth of the gratitude, once again amazing Sanzo how someone could be so... /nice/. "And... I'm sorry," he added a little embarrassedly. Hakkai didn't have to elaborate exactly what he meant.  
  
He took a drag and grunted again. He Didn't Care. "Hn. I'll shoot him."   
  
"Hai," came the chuckled reply from the door as Hakkai turned away with the feverish boy-monkey. "Just don't be too carried away, ne? It may not look much but the furnitures are actually antique." With that, he quietly closed the door behind him.  
  
===========  
  
Oh. God. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh   
Don't stop.  
glad you...came home...   
to the side... heat-waves  
i... /bitch./   
...yeah... open wide...  
Yeah.... shit.... crushed....   
Smothered.  
Blonde.  
Aah.   
  
===========  
  
Fumbling in the darkness for his sutras. Too sleepy to be graceful, rather, too tired to care. Not sleepy. Sleepy only applied to people who were on their way to the realm of slumber and dreams and nightmares, and to people who had been pulled out of that realm quite violently or suddenly so as to yearn for it again. He was nowhere near either.   
  
He needed a smoke. But he remembered going out for that earlier that night and not succeeding in obtaining a fresh pack. Liquor. At least after a couple of rounds he would be knocked out. But that would mean going out, going down to the bar and rousing the bartender below. Gods he wished he weren't human, that he had the supernatural power to shut out sound.  
  
Prayer. What he needed was desperate prayer. Hear no evil, after all. The porous, un-soundproofed walls were the devil's advocate then.  
  
//Omi toh foh.//  
  
It had been going on, the noises. The kappa's distinct way of announcing to all who would listen that he was home and would be a little busy.   
  
A faint but pained cry sounded in the night suddenly, accompanied by a whiny, "But the soup s~uucks!!!!" which promptly faded as quickly as it had come. He surmised it was probably the monkey yelling in his sleep, or Hakkai rousing the boy to take some medicinal concoction to alleviate the fever.   
  
//Omi toh foh...omi toh foh...//  
  
He muttered the words now. Muttered them to drown out his neighbor's more nonconsensual, passionate ones. Oddly now that he murmured them they formed a rythm with his neighbors', particularly the deep bass of the redhaired kappa. So he alternated his feverent prayers with equally feverent curses.   
  
//Omi toh foh... goddamn Gojyo.... Omi toh foh... fucking kappa...//  
  
That, after all, was what the kappa was doing right now. The thought stopped his personal novena short and almost forced an ironic laugh he'd managed to reign in at the last moment. The prayer beads seemed too short. So he calmly tried to lie down again, to wear out the storm.  
  
The night carries monsters. And his weren't finished tormenting him. For the moment he laid back down to try to ignore the noise, the voices escalated; a part of his mind got away with the thought that 'they are nearing their peak of passion' and fed off the night-monsters, flashing racy pictures in his mind's eye.   
  
He shuddered. Passion. Did Not. Affect. Him. There was only the intensity of battle, the bitter taste of bloody victory, the prodding anger for all the stupid fates and gods that managed to make his life look like a very bad hand of cards. Only that. Only that. Only that.  
  
It was almost stifling hot. He could almost feel every pore in his body as it strove desperately to cool his person, despite the fact that he had stripped off his tight turteneck undershirt and armwarmers for a lighter, white linen spare travel shirt he carried on him.   
  
Genjo Sanzo never liked it when he was disturbed. And affected, and trying to fight off the demons of man's most basic carnal desire. He'd kept them away just fine by not caring about them. By putting them outside the chicken wire fence of his mind, knowing they were there but not caring. What Genjo Sanzo did with demons in general was to put a bullet through their head.  
  
Just as he was really just about to get up and shoot a hole through the wall (and hopefully through the kappa and his bitch's brains as well...) the noises stopped. Stopped. Abrupt, without warning, just...  
  
Stopped. Sanzo had to blink, despite himself. He self-consciously pressed an ear to the walls, half expecting them to suddenly burst out in passionate exclamations. Nothing. Were they spent? Were they finally sated of their animal interactions, tired and weary as if soldiers surviving from a siege?   
  
"K'so" he muttered to himself, angry, and pulled away from the wall to settle against the headboard of the bed. Oh that he would have Hakkai's neverending tolerance for all things stupid! Or at least Goku's impenetrable naivette; He would be well on his way to a good night's rest.   
  
He thought his monsters had diminished now that whatever /they/ were doing had ceased. Now. Before they could put together coherent thoughts about doing it again. Now was the time to lose himself in sleep. Hopefully he would be lost enough not to be torn away from it when if they started making noises again.  
  
He set his slightly sweating self back on the hot sheets. His pesperation was not entirely caused by the humid weather this time.  
  
===========  
  
Iris-less eyes watched from the garden downstairs the quiet tavern. They flicked from one window to the other, with the four strange occupants. They blinked for a moment as if to memorize the scene, and disappeared into the night.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tsuzuku  
  
notes: Er, 'Omi toh foh' is Mandarin for 'Buddha bless you' and is a common Chinese prayer (or so my Chinese friends Ririn and Silas-chan tell me... Tensaispira recommends 'amitabha' but I think 'omi toh foh' is okay...) Thanks for the reviews. *Blinks stupidly* Have seen a total of only...*ticks fingers* nine-eleven Saiyuki eps, so I'm really thankful for your corrections. ;) K!ra Kudou is happy. Sorta.   
  
[1] Yes, this is a kind of fish. If anyone recognizes the language... =D 


	3. This is how you remind me

3: This is how you remind me  
  
-------------------  
I love to wear my work inside of my head  
I can't complain   
But you should never react  
The way you did.   
I feel your time.  
~Just Another/ P.Yorn~  
-------------------  
  
  
They always fought. She hated it when they fought. They always shouted at each other, they always threw things against the wall---and when it really got bad they threw things at each other and accidentally hit each other. He would be like a stormcloud in the small room, dark and hostile and angry, She would be pale and cold and shouting. Anger was a static feeling in the air she had come to know all her life, burning and churning the spaces between.  
  
All through the night, it happened; sleep only came rather hesitantly and never long enough to take her away from it. From her father's frustrated negations, his angry words stumbling over pent-up and rushing emotions flooding through the gates of anger, forming incoherent gibberish when they would have shaken the heavens otherwise. From her mother's refusal to stand down; her stubborn claim of righteousness in the face of her own confusion.   
  
"She is not of demon blood!"  
  
"Then explain why she has--"  
  
"THAT does NOT come from my blood line. Why don't you consider checking yours? Or is it so ingrained in your /personality/ that blood pales in comparison?"  
  
"Don't speak to me of riddles, you liar."  
  
"I never lied to you!"  
  
"Then explain--"  
  
"I told all the gods' honest truth when I took you for my wife--"  
  
"Demons do not believe in truth!!!"  
  
She would always wake up when her mother shouted. And it was always those words that he would hit her, that she would hit him with something in return. They always fought. She hated it when they fought. And worse, when the sun came up, they would cease, and yet keep the ice thick around them.   
  
//No more fighting.//  
  
============  
  
Gojyo ambled down the stairs the next morning, and saw the girl off. It was strange how he had looked at her as some "hot and fuckable" thing last night, and now, in the light of day, he felt like meeting her for the first time: Her brown eyes seemed more soulful--more 'innocent' if it could be the proper word used for one like her--and her movements were like a shy young girl's, oblivious to the birds and the bees.   
  
"Thank you," she said softly when he pressed the bills[1] in her hand as she walked out the tavern doorway.  
  
He amazed himself by actually replying in a courteous tone, "Don't mention it... thank YOU. Mika-chan, wasn't it?"  
  
She nodded and smiled as she went out, turning to wave at him when she was about to turn the corner. Usually he was up for a second round, up in is bedroom and sleeping in until it was time to go out and find another one; or she would be gone the moment he would awake, or she would go about coldly arranging her things and demanding money in a very, well, whore-ish manner.   
  
He was therefore convinced that it was a dusk-til-dawn thing with the girls in this town, irrisistable sirens at night, placid and well-mannered ladies during the day. //It must be the makeup or the heat or something.//  
  
As he made his way up the stairs quietly (he had no shoes on, and the wooden plank floor felt nice on his bare feet) the door beside his room opened and a yawning Sanzo emerged, dressed in a spare linen shirt that promoted comfort in the hot weather of the day. It was somewhat refreshing to see him dressed in something else, something more... human, and not godly, holy, 'omi toh foh' clergyman. The monk was rather sleepy-eyed and he yawned, for a moment looking like a sleepless young schoolboy after a night of playing midnight catch.   
  
The kappa blinked, realization dawning on him slowly. The room he and the girl had slept in wasn't his. He now remembered, with a brain that was both sober and rational, that his commissioned room was further down the hall beside the monkey's. Caught in the fury of a storm of lust in a semi-drunken state, he had entered the first door he could get open. He had assumed it was a free room; nobody had beaten him out with a chair leg, so he obliged.  
  
Oh, /sh~IT./  
  
Which meant sleeping in the room beside the fastidious monk. Fastidious //prude// monk, he added to himself, trying to supress his---embarrassment? Why would he be ashamed of Sanzo hearing his actions? Fear? What would the monk do that he had not already done besides successfully putting a bullet through his head?   
  
"Oohayo, Sanzo-sama." Well, it was always easier to slip back to the smooth operator tone. He was hoping the monk had a good night's rest last night, and that if he was a *little* bit disturbed he would find it in his holy heart to forgive. And a morning greeting never hurt anybody. Yet.  
  
The mouth snapped shut at the sound of his voice, and purple eyes ringed slightly around the corners like a light bruise stared at him owlishly for several moments, whereupon they narrowed customarily and shot slivers of ice in his direction. Apparently the monk had not slept well, and he had not been forgiven.   
  
"Great day, ne?" the kappa tried to joke. Sanzo opened his mouth to say something, struggled for a while, and then closed it. He did not want to say something he would regret later, something that would reveal just how /affected/ he was.   
  
"Tch," he settled for a reply, and stalked down the stairs, elbowing the other roughly on the way. He didn't have a single cig since the last one burned the night before, and he was going on a frighteningly low fuse. If the kappa said anything else, he would punch the bastard right then and there. What kept him perhaps, was the fact that he did not want to embarrass himself while other people looked on.  
  
Wisely Gojyo said nothing, and watched in bewilderment as the blonde head disappeared below the staircase. "Oh boy, he's going to be a prick today," he murmured to himself. A passing young maid carrying a broom eyed him strangely, before continuing on with her work.  
  
============  
  
He was sitting on a field of poppies, and the tickly things kept blowing in his face making him sneeze whenever the wind blew his way. The sky above him was blue, and cloudless; for miles around all he could see were rolling plains and flowers of every color dancing in the summer breeze.  
  
"Hey, what are you waiting for? Sa~ru-cha~n. Hee."  
  
He turned to the direction of the voice. The figure was further away now, and he could make out the flowing robes and the mirth in the very, very familiar eyes. He wondered where he had seen them before. The figure called out a second time, childish impatience and excitement causing him to stand up and squint at the direction the figure was pointing.  
  
"The raspberry orchards are just across the meadow. They're very pretty, and nobody will bother us there. Hurry!" The figure turned and ran across the grass, laughing. He scrambled up to follow and was about to call out to the figure to wait, he was going too fast, when something flashed before him.  
  
Empty blue eyes pierced his own with a sadness incomparable. With a sad shake of her head, "No," and a finger on his lip, the world swallowed him up.  
  
=============  
  
"How is he."  
  
Hakkai looked up from where he sat playing solitaire on the coffee table beside Goku. "He's going to be okay, I suppose. The old man was right; just a little feverish. Delerious sometimes, but it's normal." The amicable swindler reached a hand to ruffle the soundly sleeping boy's head. The little dragon Jeep was curled around the foot of the bed, his beady red eyes flicking open once to note the presence of the monk before it closed shut once more. "Like I said, he should be okay tomorrow."   
  
"Hn." He tossed his blonde head lightly toward the window where a breeze shifted the leaves of the olives outside the window. "I don't understand how any one place can be so hot," he mused to himself. He saw Hakkai nod at the corner of his eye.   
  
"Hai. It's almost searing, no? Whew." Green eyes blinked as they noticed the slight rings around glaring purple eyes staring off out the window. "Hey--Sanzo..." He cleared his throat embarrassedly when the monk looked at him questioningly. "Goku. He should be okay tomorrow."   
  
The monk sniffed softly in disdain. As when he talked with Hakkai, no elaboration was needed. But he understood perfectly well what the latter meant. "I want him to carry his business elsewhere." A slight snarl in his voice.  
  
Green eyes regarded him seriously. "Oh, but he can't. You know that." Of course, thought the monk harshly. He knew that. They had made a deal---all four of them---to always end up in the same place where they were to spend the night irregardless of where they had gone. With a dangerous mission on their shoulders and a brigand of demons and wayward gods too happy to derail them from their objective, it was a reasonable enough deal. "I take it it wasn't a very 'silent night'?"  
  
"Tch." he pulled out a slim cylinder from the pack he'd bought from the newspaper girl on the corner. He respectfully kept to the open window so as not to let the smoke hang in the room. "Sleeping in the room beside the noisiest porn movie in the world, /no/ it wasn't particularly /quiet/." He took a deep drag. The flavor was rather dry, bland, and somewhat stale, but coming from a town like this one, it was expected. Still, a cig was a cig nonetheless.  
  
This made Hakkai laugh out loud, slightly startling the slumbering Jeep. "It's been particularly stressful. Gomenasai, though." Did he hint some sort of amusement the smiling man hid in his apologetic tone? Amused at him being /bothered/ by the other's late-night debauchery?   
  
"Tch," he snorted again indifferently, showing off perfect nonchalance. He flicked ash on the sill before he turned to leave. "Just make sure the damn monkey heals fast enough so we can get out of here."   
  
He closed the door behind him and did not hear the soft, almost inaudible chuckle that escaped the amused Hakkai.  
  
==============  
  
It was inevitable, really. It was a small town, it was a small tavern, and there were only four of them save the old weaving lady who stayed down the corridor and the scowling merchant with the skinny donkey. There was only one bar, there was only one kitchen, and the dining space was cozy, tight, empty.   
  
It was inevitable that he would have to face the short-tempered monk who obviously had a good memory for any minor offense on his person. What did one do when one offended Sanzo? One apologized. From afar, of course, lest he change his mind and be rather vindictive to decide to put a bullet through your head.   
  
Oh, but he wasn't like that. If it had been a foolish gag, naturally he would have taken that course of action. But he was entitled to his own pleasures wasn't he? It was just an /accident/ that he had stumbled in the room beside Sanzo's. But he had been at fault, he knew. Or at least, that's what peacemaker Hakkai told him.  
  
//Go apologize to Sanzo. He didn't particularly like being an indirect spectator of your, er... pasttimes. Go apologize.//  
  
//Well it isn't my fault. Anyway it's not as if he doesn't know how those things work just because he's a monk. I'm willing to bet--//  
  
//Gojyo, we have enough problems already.// A put-upon sigh and a gentle pat on the feverish Goku's forehead. //  
  
So he went up to apologize.  
  
The monk had his back to him and was sitting on one of the barstools reading the newspaper. One hand nursed a cup of tea. It was still too early for a hard drink. It wasn't completely dark outside anyway, and he figured 'Mika-chan' and her friends were still prepping themselves up.  
  
He sat one stool away from the monk. Just to be safe. The bartender came around and he ordered two rounds. When the drinks came he slid one over to his companion, a peace offering. Which was ignored.  
  
"Oi."   
  
"Fuck off, kappa." A pissed snarl.   
  
He had half-expected to be ignored anyway. Sanzo was very good at that. Of making you feel like you didn't exist. He was also very good at making you wish you were talking to someone else. So he mentally took a deep breath and surged on. "Listen, sorry for last night. I'm aware that the monkey did something stupid again, so Hakkai has to go nurse him back to health. Really didn't mean it."  
  
"Mean what, whoring out, or keeping half the town awake with the animal noises you and your bitch were making? I wonder why you don't get anything from all that pimping up to now."  
  
He sat stunned. Just as he had planned to be nice and serious and for once sincerely meaning what he said, and Sanzo had to embarass him in front of everyone. The bartender clearned his throat embarassedly and went to the backroom, while two other patrons ducked to their drinks and hid their faces.  
  
"Hey that's going too far." His voice had raised a bit. He knew he had to raise it. In arguments like these---and there hadn't been a few between both of them---Sanzo either hit him soundly or ignored him completely to make a fool of himself. Well he was /not/ backing down. "I'm sorry. There. I apologized already, hadn't I?" He had meant it too.   
  
"If you're planning to look stupid all night, don't talk to me. Go take your exercises somewhere else." The monk emptied his tea which was still quite hot and tipped the clay pot beside him roughly to refill his cup with the very warm green liquid. A wine-colored eyebrow rose at the rash act.   
  
"You know, Sanzo-sama, another way of getting rid of fear is to face it." He decided a different tactic this time. If being nice and rational didn't work, then he would have no choice but to slip back to being 'annoying'. "I invited you to come join me last night and maybe I'll give you a re-education about what it is I do. Maybe, once you get to actually know what it is like, you'll..." He would what? Like it? Was there something even remotely human inside that cold-marble statuette with amethyst eyes?  
  
They tore towards him now, stunning and shimmering in the dusk light. Furious, annoyed, confused, relatively deciding to smack him upside in the face. Confused...? The only other time the kappa had seen that look on the other's eyes was when Sanzo was drunk. Tea did /not/ induce drunkenness. So maybe what /he'd said/ did? Before he could stop it, a grin crept up the side of his face at the thought.  
  
"Shut up and stay away, kappa. Do me a favor and stay the fuck away." Did he sense desperation in the tone? Oh, it was dripping with ice, that was for sure. But plum eyes flickered for the tiniest bit before the ice sought to cover it. Aha. He /was/ affected.   
  
"That's precisely what I'm going to do after I get my catch for tonight, sire." Reaching out, he tossed his shot back and purred at the burning sensation in his throat. Fixing glazed but piercing eyes at the rigid monk, he continued, "I think I'm feeling generous tonght, so I'll bring you a little take-home present too. I prefer mine to be fiesty. Sometimes they can be such lousy bitches when they know it's your first time. Or you could share with me. What would /YOU/ li--"  
  
*smack*  
  
His eyes riveted toward the open door as his head snapped sideways from the blow. A stinging sensation spread from the side of his face as the metal ring of the armwarmer connected with his cheekbone. It took him a few seconds to regain his composure. With it came a blossoming anger that welled up from deep inside him.   
  
He turned to face the monk slowly, noting the look of almost-surprise mar the livid man. Like the other did not know what he just did. //You nearly broke my face, goddamn you.//   
  
"You're full of goddamn shit, you know that."   
  
"Not half as an asshole as you are," Sanzo spat back, recoiling somewhat as if to tell him that 'there's more where that came from.' Oh he so wanted, /wanted/ to grab the pot of hot tea and crash it over his haughty blonde head. Maybe press it against the worn wood of the bar until the proud bastard apologized.  
  
It was a near comical irony of the situation. Him coming over to apologize in the very first place. And now this. "Taa, look at his majesty squirm," he couldn't help but snipe sarcastically as he rubbed his cheek softly. "Resulting to violence to affirm yourself because you've got nothing to say, ne? Typical of you."  
  
He gave the monk a chance to speak but the other just sat there, livid, angry, /accused/....   
  
//and guilty// he thought smugly. He decided to take it one more step, the sadistic, victorious part of him not content with just cracking glass but feeling the jagged edges underfoot. He wasn't really thinking rationally, all he knew was that he was very angry, and he wanted to unseat the monk from his high and mighty mountaintop by making him as uncomfortable as he could.  
  
It was as if, if all the abuse he had taken from Sanzo compounded into this one moment of revenge, he would gladly do anything to acquisience his battered pride. Rational thought humbly stood aside and smiled bemusedly.  
  
He brushed against Sanzo suddenly as he passed his way to the door. The smell of sandalwood[2] only fuelled his malicious little revenging side, drinking in how light golden hairs at the back of a very stiff neck stood on end at his breath. He laid a hand on the monk's rigid shoulder. "I told you it's not healthy, Sanzo-*sa~ma*," he drawled out deliberately. "By the way, good luck on playing 'god', I'm giving it a C+ so far." He reached out to squeeze a tense hand , the hand that smacked him in the face.  
  
Casually lighting his cigarette as he strolled out the door, the kappa disappeared into the early dusk, eager to be anywhere else but the bar. It would disturb him later on, as he was getting up and fixing himself after a quite satisfying bout with his two new 'friends', how he had managed to pull off such a stint back at the bar and not get decapitated for his efforts.   
  
And that, after all he had been through in that frenzied, reckless copulation, his hand---the hand that touched the stone 'god'---still smelled of sandalwood.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tsuzuku  
  
notes: Fixed the Chinese thingy in chapter 2. Arigatou, tensaispira, and Rook ^_^. I can write Chinese characters but I barely speak them. Strange no? But then again, Kira is always strange... Do you know how vexing the anti NC-17 rating is? *sharpens stake* I believe it's the responsibility of the reader to choose the stories he/she reads. True, there are really dark, really disturbing and freaky ones (freaker than a TOOL video... though I liked it, sorta...) that deserve to be chloroformed once in a while, but isn't that another way to 'free your soul'? *points at FF.net ad* *frowns* Yeah, /WHATEVER./ (Kira is ranting. Obviously I haven't had a cup of good SB coffee in the past 12 hours so...feel the lunacy.)  
  
[1]I don't think they ALL depend on Sanzo for money. Maybe the big inn finances, yeah. I'm willing to bet that, like any good traveller, Gojyo has his own 'stash' for 'private purposes'. ;j   
  
[2] My brother's room. It smells like sandalwood. I like it. It's... masculine, not quite sweet, but rather intriguing...very Sanzo-ish ne? I was thinking 'lemons' but... Need a nice, woodland smell for this guy. There's another fic describing sandalwood smell on the monk too... and I liked how it turned out--I forgot what title it was? 


End file.
